Farjamed, first off in answer to your question about the 4 or 8 ohm concern, If you have autoformers then the meteres self correct for the impedance driven. I have own a number of Mc amps and find that the meters do indicate about how much power your are delivering at the outputs. How ever I emphasize "about" and really the appeal is the look. I think they are accurate as you can get in real world for what they are designed to do. The reason for the 200 on a 100 watt amp is to let you know when you are totally pegged and that is so close to the 100 watt mark that you won't really be able to decipher the difference between 100 and 200 while playing unless you leave it cranked all the way for anylength of time. At which point the Power Sentry will kick in and shut you down. Mc's power sentry /power guard circuits are designed to protect you from clipping and that is where you need to lose any concern about that occuring. As when you drive the amp to clipping the system will shut down the outputs and the lack of sound will get your attention far before the meters will ever indicate. I think the blue meteres are great to look at but I usually take my glasses off so I really can't see the needle. Have a glass of wine and relax and enjoy the music. They are much more romantic than a fireplace and never require cleaning ashes (unless you continue to crank it and the PG or PS circuits fail).
Understanding Mcintosh Meters?
This is probably a stupid question, or atleast one I should be able to answer myself, being that I did graduate with a degree in computer engineering, but I recently got a mcintosh ma6450, and was wondering how I make sense of the meters. I understand what they measure, and what it means, but how do i know when I am close to clipping.
Let me explain further. the amp is rated 100wpc, in to 4 ohms and the meters read from .01 to 100 watts with the final mark being 200 watts. But what if my speakers are 8ohms? I know that means my amp produces about 50 watts in to 8ohms, but does that mean that I can only take the meters about 1/2 way before I will clip, or do I go by the decibels, meaning 0db is really the max before clipping, only instead of producing 100wpc (0db corresponds to 100w watts on the meters), the amp is only producing ~50wpc since the speakers are 8ohms.
Hope I explained my question well enough. Thanks for your help.
Let me explain further. the amp is rated 100wpc, in to 4 ohms and the meters read from .01 to 100 watts with the final mark being 200 watts. But what if my speakers are 8ohms? I know that means my amp produces about 50 watts in to 8ohms, but does that mean that I can only take the meters about 1/2 way before I will clip, or do I go by the decibels, meaning 0db is really the max before clipping, only instead of producing 100wpc (0db corresponds to 100w watts on the meters), the amp is only producing ~50wpc since the speakers are 8ohms.
Hope I explained my question well enough. Thanks for your help.